Godzilla’s Ginseng

Godzilla’s Ginseng
by Gabriel Constans

Ginseng is known throughout the world as a powerful tonic and energizer. It’s prescribed in China for ailments ranging from colds to impotence. You can use it in stir fry, salads, drinks, soups, and healing remedies, such as this natural breath freshener. It has a zingy taste that, like Godzilla, returns again and again.

Yield: 3 cups

3 tablespoons powdered ginseng
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
3 fresh mint leaves, chopped
1 1/2 cups filtered water
1 tablespoon plus 1 1/2 teaspoons maple styrup

Place ingredients in a blender, and blend on medium speed for 30 seconds.
Chill the mixture in the freezer for 15 minutes.
Pour into tall glasses and serve with a slice of lemon or lime on top.

Dylan: Los and Found

From Yahoo Music
Arts & Entertainment

Dylan: The Lost Years

Bob Dylan’s 1970 album Self Portrait was so derided upon its initial release that Rolling Stone critic Greil Marcus opened his review with a simple question: “What is this shit?” Now, 43 years later, Rolling Stone is revisiting the time period around Self Portait — and some of Dylan’s most misunderstood music ever — with a cover story by Mikal Gilmore probing why Dylan burned down his career at the peak of his fame to save himself.

With the help of Dylan’s new box set Another Self Portrait — which presents raw, unvarnished tapes from the Self Portrait sessions — Gilmore traces Dylan’s creative journey from his motorcycle accident in 1966 through his return to the pop charts in 1973 with “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door.”

Focusing on the largely untold story of Self Portrait’s creation, the cover story features new interviews with Dylan collaborators Al Kooper, David Crosby, Roger McGuinn, David Bromberg and Happy Traum. “I thought it was strange, strange, strange,” says Kooper of Self Portrait, which consists mainly of cover songs. “Why is the Shakespeare of songwriting doing other people’s songs? And why is he doing all these old folk songs? What’s going on?”

Read entire story at Rolling Stone.

The Beta-Carotene Queen

The Beta-Carotene Queen

“It sure is orange!” That’s what most people say when they see this smoothie for the first time. There is a warning label that says, “Do not look directly at this drink without the aid of sunglasses, or it may cause blindness.”

This is a tangy, sweet drink fit for royalty. It’s healthy, too. The apricots provide a high sugar content for energy; the carrot juice is high in vitamin A; the orange juice is high in vitamin C; cantaloupe aids in elimination; mango helps reduce fever; and papaya is rich in vitamins. Save the peels from the fruit and use for cups.

Yield: 4 cups

2 apricots, pitted and sliced
1 1/2 cups carrot juice
1/2 cup peeled and chopped cantaloupe
1/2 cup peeled and sliced mango
1 cup peeled and chopped papaya
3 tablespoons frozen organe juice concentrate or 1 cup fresh orange juice

Place all the ingredients in a blender, and blend on low speed for 1 minute.

Pour into left-over fruit skins and serve. Don’t forget to wear shades!

When She Was 12

When we were 12, you and I probably spent August shopping for backpacks, notebooks, and markers to get ready for school.

When she was 12, Prossy Mukisa was married off for a dowry payment. For years, Prossy dreamed of bettering her future, and ensuring that her four children would be able to attend school. Saving her wages from working in a local bakery, she opened her own grocery store. Later that year, her husband walked out on her and their four children. When Prossy took him back, he infected her with HIV/AIDS. Ill and unable to rely on her husband’s support, Prossy could not expand her business.

But the next spring, Prossy’s life took a more hopeful turn. After a friend told her about FINCA Uganda’s Kazinga Village Bank, Prossy took out a loan of $50 and transformed her shop into a music store, buying instruments to rent out to musicians for local events. Prossy now also employs three musicians who play at parties and she was able to send her children back to school.

This school year, support hard-working women like Prossy – donate today, and stand with dedicated women and children around the world.

Sincerely,

Soledad Gompf
Vice President, FINCA

Summer Of Hunger

Summer Of Hunger

Survivors of last summer’s drought in Mali are facing another summer of desperate hunger – and a food crisis that targets the most vulnerable.

Instead of saving seeds for this year’s harvest, farmers cooked and ate them last year. Selling the family’s only ox raised money to buy a little food then – but left them without a way to plow the fields and grow more food this year. In a vicious cycle, last year’s drought means fewer crops this year – and hunger spread like wildfire.

In communities reliant on their crops for food, this is the worst time of year for hunger. In a few weeks, the harvest will come in and there will be more food to go around – but 4.3 million people in Mali need humanitarian assistance right now. They can’t wait a few weeks.

Your gift today will help CARE send supplies where they are needed most and fight the root causes of hunger. And thanks to our limited-time match, anything you can give will be doubled to have twice the impact.

The food crisis is affecting some of the most vulnerable: Pregnant women. Breastfeeding mothers. Very young children too hungry to do anything but cry. Disease and hunger are rampant and the situation is desperate – but we know how to step in and make a difference.

CARE has already distributed 10,748 tons of food in Mali, including rice, sorghum, corn, and cowpea, as well as fertilizer to help farmers boost their crop yields. But since the beginning of the year, the number of people who need immediate assistance has doubled.

Things in Mali are bad – but you can help change all that, and it takes less than you might imagine. It only costs $7 to provide a week’s supply of food for someone in crisis – and with our match, every dollar you donate will stretch twice as far. Will you step up to help those who are suffering in this emergency?

Please donate today to make a difference in the lives of children and families in crisis. With our match, your gift will go twice as far.

Thank you for all that you do to improve the lives of those in need.

Sincerely,

Helene D. Gayle, MD, MPH
President and CEO, CARE

That Old Black Magic

That Old Black Magic

Spirulina is a form of algae. It’s a big energy booster that the Aztecs used to take on long trips. Rose hip tea is high in vitamin C, and helps fight off colds. This smoothie should be dark in color and rich in taste.

Yield: 4 cups

1/4 cup spirulina
1 large banana
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 cup grape juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup brewed rose hip tea

Place all the ingredients in a blender, and blend on medium speed for 30 seconds.

Pour into tall glasses and serve this delicious and healthy concoction.

Rugby Men Return to Rwanda

The Rugby Men Return to the Rwandan Orphan’s Project

There are two groups the boys especially look forward to seeing each year: the “cricket men” and the “rugby men” (as the kids call them). The rugby men are the volunteers of the organization Friends of Rwandan Rugby, a UK-based charity whose mission is to promote rugby in Rwanda. They come to Rwanda every year and they always make time to visit us. As well as spending time with the boys, they also often bring bags full of clothes and other donations that save us a lot of money. And this year they went a step further.

Last week we received a phone call from their local representative who said the guys would be visiting on Saturday, and that they also wanted to give the boys a nice dinner with meat and rice (both big treats for our kids). So on Saturday they arrived with sacks of rice and kilos of goat which the ROP’s chefs began to cook up. After a very fun (but tiring) rugby match everyone went to the dining hall and attempted to consume the massive plates of food the cooks had produced.

he plates were so big it became a competition to see who would complete the feat of finishing their plate first. Somehow one of our boys finished his before any of the big rugby guys, and the boys erupted in applause in proud support of their friend.

We’re really grateful to the guys from Friends of Rwandan Rugby for being such great supporters and friends of the ROP. You guys are always so generous and our boys love hanging out with you, and we look forward to your visit each year.

Thanks again from all of us at the Rwandan Orphans Project!

See complete story and more photos at ROP Stories.

Families Need Food Now!

Families Need Food Now!

In some places, hunger isn’t just something that happens for a few hours, or even a few days. For some, hunger lasts a whole season – and we’re right in the middle of it.

Stores of food from last year’s harvest have run low in Mali, Guatemala, and Lesotho, but next year’s crops aren’t ready to eat or sell. There’s no money left to buy more food. Children are getting more and more hungry. Many parents are desperately trying to make what food they have stretch for just a few more days.

Because if they can’t – if the food won’t last until the crops come in – their children might not survive. These families need food now.

This is the worst time of year for hungry families. But right now, we have a special opportunity to fight back: from now until August 29, every single dollar you give will be matched, so you can fight back twice as hard against hunger.

Your donation can help CARE provide relief to a hungry child and help eliminate the hungry season for good. Donate today and your gift will be matched – everything you give will be doubled.

To fight hunger right now, CARE is providing immediate nutritional assistance, including bags of corn, sorghum, millet, or rice, and emergency therapeutic foods to treat malnourished children. It costs just $7 to feed a person in crisis for an entire week.

But we don’t believe in temporary solutions to big problems, and I’m sure you feel the same way. That’s why CARE isn’t just fighting the hungry season this year – we’re also working to break the cycle, to prevent a hungry season next year. And every year.

The cycle of hunger is a vicious one: Families sell shares of their upcoming harvest at rock-bottom prices just to get food to eat today, leaving them less to sell at fair prices the following season and reducing the amount they will earn. Worse yet, in moments of desperation, they’ll even eat seeds meant to plant next year’s crop, leaving them with less to grow next year.

To fight hunger in the future, CARE is taking long-term steps. We’re working with communities to improve farming techniques to make fields more productive. We’re also setting up savings and loan groups so families can diversify their sources of income by taking out loans and investing the capital in ventures like sewing or animal husbandry.

We can’t accomplish any of that without the support of people like you.

Your support can feed a child right now, and can help a family stay nourished for all of next year.

Donate now, and help CARE work towards ending the hungry season for hard-working families – this year and forever.

Thank you for all that you do.

Sincerely,

Helene D. Gayle, MD, MPH
President and CEO, CARE

Eggy – Son of Chicken

Eggy – Son of Chicken

Our cat friend of 18 years stopped breathing air and died today. We put him in the ground to say goodbye and help him nourish new life. Our daughter named him Eggy (because his mother’s name was Chicken). Eggy came into our lives when our son Shona was 2 years old and he was the last of our children still at home.

Eggy was born to be a lap cat and my daemon. He sat on my lap when I read and meditated and was constantly laying across my legs when I wrote and was at the computer. For those familiar with the The Golden Compass series, you will understand immediately what “daemon” means. For those who haven’t read the wonderful trilogy by Philip Pullman, here is one definition.

The words “daemon” and “daimon” are Latinized versions of Greek, in reference to the daemons of ancient Greek religion and mythology. “Daemons are benevolent or benigh nature spirits, beings of the same nature as both mortals and gods, similar to ghosts, chthonic heroes, spirit guies, forces of nature or the gods themselves.”

We are grateful for the years Eggy was physically present and the ways in which he will always be with us.

Here are some photos of Eggy and me reading a book about chocolate and on Shona’s desk when Shona was about 4 years old and Eggy was 2.